S T R I NEW S LET T E R
#13
UPCOMING HOLIDAY
Friday, Apr il 20 is Good Friday, an official holiday in the Republic of Panama.
STRI offices will be closed on that day.
SEMINARS
No seminar scheduled for Tuesday, April 17.
Check bulletin boards for last minute scheduling.
COMINGS & GOINGS
LIZZIE, JOHN and MARY LEIGH are leaving April 14 on vacation to the US.
STAN RAND left this past week with CHUCK MEYERS, JOHN DAILY and LINDA MAXON for Chiriqui. They will be studying frogs in the area near the new 0 il pipeline. Dr.
Rand is expected back April 21.
OLGA F. LINARES re turned this week from a ttending a conference in Italy on West African farming systems, and from archival consultations in other European capitals.
LIBRARY NEWS
Theme of STRl Library Photo Exhibit June 1984:
SCIENTIST WITH A CAMERA: PICTORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY AND ILLUSTRATION
8 x 10 or 11 x 14 black and white or color prints (up to eight can be submitted by one person). Deadline for submissions: 1 May.
Call CAROL JOPLING for further informa~ion,
52-2914.
FIELDSTATION GUADALUPE ARRIBA
Since December STRI maintains a field station in the cloud forest at 2100 m near Cerro Punta, Chiriqui. I t is a house with a completely equipped kitchen, bedrooms, etc. There is electricity in the evening hours. The cost of staying there is
$10/night or $50/week. Call HENK WOLDA or GLORIA MAGGIORI for details. The caretaker of the house is Mr. Carlos Castillo.
FINCA DE LAS OVEJAS
ANTONIO MONTANER, formerly a student at Naos, now has a finca in Chiriqui, in the highlands, near the Costa Rican border at
"Piedra Candela". He offers the use of his house to persons at STRI who would like to do studies in the forest near his place.
For more information, please ask H. WOLDA.
I\PRIL 13, 1984
ANNOUNCEMENT
STRI Director Ira Rubinoff announced this week that HENK WOLDA has agreed to serve as Acting Deputy Director of STRI from May 7 until the search for the new appointee is completed. Dr.
Wolda came to STRI in 1971 from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and has been very active in research on insect population ecology. Dr. Rubinoff welcomes his assistance, and looks fo rward to the cooperation from 0 ther staff members during the period of transition.
TROPICAL ECOLOGY FIELD COURSE TERMINATES
Participants in the tropical ecology field course, jointly given by the University of Panama and STRI, re turned to Panama City on April 10, after spending a month at four different field sites. All thirteen students survived, as did the coordinators (Y. LUBIN, R.
SEGISTAN, and H. TEJERA), although with scars resul ting from the descent of Volcan Baru.
And from all who participated: "it was a great success". The students are busily working on their final· reports, and still recuperating from the sun, heat, insect bites and hard work.
LAST CURTAIN CALL
In spite of sudden illnesses, te.chnical difficulties and the like, the Festival Movi1 de Educacion Ambiental gave its final presentation last Sunday in the Museum of Man.
The presentation combined selected skits, puppet shows and songs, and also included a narrative interlude by Jane Shuttleworth, one of the program creators, who explained what the festival was all about. Ten members of the Asociacion Estudiantil para la Conservacion de Panama, AECAP, including Shuttleworth and J.
Jaen, the originators of the festival, visited small communities in the interior of Panama during the months of February and March. They stayed two days in each community, presenting two different evening programs and an afternoon matinee for children. Upon arriving at each community they were first received with curious and amused"stares, especially from children, as they set up their scenery and dressing rooms.
By the end of each visit, they lef t behind their message and many new friends.
Although the program was created to communicate environmental education to rural audiences, the participants, all "city kid~", had an equally valuable learning experience. They saw first hand the reason for the message they were communicating, as they visited severely deforested areas of Panama, and in conversations with the people, heard how their environments had changed in past years.
As in their rural audiences, the group stirred many a laugh and applause on Sunday night, and now will begin planning for next year's festival.
Time flies like an arrow Fruit flies like a banana
